In an extension of its two-year-old partnership with Microsoft, Hortonworks made available for download a beta of the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) for Windows on February 25.

HDP was built with "joint investment and contributions" from Microsoft, according to officials from both companies. The new Windows platform is 100 percent open source and provides the same Hadoop experience as is available from Hortonworks on Linux. The beta of HDP for Windows is available on www.hortonworks.com/downloads.

HDP is Hortonworks' Hadoop distribution tailored for enterprise users, and includes high-availability, security, data services and management tools and interfaces. Hortonworks contributes all of code back to the Apache Software Foundation.

In 2011, Microsoft announced it was partnering with Hortonworks to create both a Windows Azure and Windows Server implementations of the Hadoop big data framework. At that time, Microsoft officials committed to providing a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of the Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure before the end of calendar 2011 and a CTP of the Hadoop-based distribution for Windows Server some time in 2012.

HDP didn't exist yet when Microsoft and Hortonworks initially announced their partnership, said Herain Oberoi, Microsoft Director of Product Marketing. What differentiates the new HDP for Windows from HDInsight Server for Windows is "the level of integration" and "where you get your support," Oberoi said.

The just-announced HDP offering is the foundational layer for Microsoft's HDInsight offerings, according to Hortonworks officials. Microsoft's HDInsight platforms include tight integration with a number of Microsoft services and products. And Microsoft is the company backing that platform.

Microsoft officials have not provided an updated delivery target for the final versions of its HDInsight platforms for Windows Server or Azure. However, general availability of HDP is slated for the second calendar quarter of 2013, Hortonworks officials said.

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She also is the cohost of the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT network.
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Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.